JOHN PHILLIPS: Can Hillary win by running against Bill?

The 2016 presidential election could be a blast from the past in many ways; we could see another Clinton versus another Bush on the ballot, California Gov. Jerry Brown could serve as an irritant to the Democratic Party establishment yet again, and Bill Clinton’s wandering eye could produce endless pages of tabloid fodder.

But, while some things remain the same, 2016 will differ from the 1990s in one very fundamental way – instead of embracing her husband’s political moderation, Hillary’s success may hinge on taking a hard turn to the left and repudiating his brand of Blue Dog pragmatism.

When Bill Clinton was sworn in as president in January 1993, he became the first Democrat to occupy the White House in 12 years. He also became the first baby boomer to win the nation’s top office and enjoyed huge majorities in both houses of Congress. As a result, he immediately moved on a laundry list of Democratic proposals, including relaxing the ban on gays in the military, HillaryCare and raising taxes.

Two years later, congressional Democrats got shellacked in the 1994 midterm elections, and Clinton didn’t have to have a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future to see the writing on the wall for his 1996 reelection bid if he didn’t reposition his administration closer to the political center.

Dick Morris became the strategist that Bill Clinton tapped to make this happen.

Morris persuaded Clinton to adopt the reelection strategy of “triangulation.” In his 1999 book “Behind the Oval Office: Getting Reelected Against All Odds,” Morris explains, “The president needed to take a position that not only blended the best of each party’s views but also transcended them to constitute a third force in the debate.”

This policy manifested itself with welfare reform, a balanced budget and, most famously, Clinton declaring in his 1996 State of the Union Address that “the era of big government is over.”

Fast forward to 2015: The Democratic Party has lurched farther to the left, and while Bill Clinton remains personally popular among Democrats, triangulation has decidedly fallen out of favor.

Take two recent examples:

Speaking at the Democratic Party’s John Spratt Issues Conference in Myrtle Beach, S.C., former Maryland governor and probable 2016 presidential candidate Martin O’Malley said, “The most fundamental power of our party and our country is the power of our moral principles. ... Triangulation is not a strategy that will move America forward. History celebrates profiles in courage, not profiles in convenience.”

The New York Times described this as a “veiled shot” at Hillary. Please, this wasn’t passive-aggressive, it was overtly aggressive.

O’Malley also tipped his hand that he thinks Hillary, as potential rival, is vulnerable to attacks from the left on her husband’s 1990’s moderation.

Then, in California, state Sen. Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, is moving to repeal a key part of welfare reform, known as “the maximum family grant,” the law that says that, if a family has additional children while on welfare, they’re barred from getting additional money.

Mitchell described this policy in the Sacramento Bee as “classist, sexist, anti-democratic, anti-child (and) anti-family.”

While it’s true that Mitchell is trying to change California law, Bill Clinton signed federal welfare reform into law in 1996 and it is generally regarded as one of the top achievements of his administration.

With her husband's legislative legacy under assault from her own side of the aisle, it remains to be seen if Hillary will stand by her husband’s record or “evolve” on any number of issues that chip away at Bill’s legacy.

Staff opinion columnist John Phillips can be heard weekdays at 3 p.m. on “The Drive Home with Jillian Barberie and John Phillips” on KABC/AM 790 in Los Angeles.

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